1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device of an inverted pendulum type mobile apparatus capable of moving on a floor surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inverted pendulum type mobile apparatus has a travelling motion unit capable of moving on a floor surface, an actuator which drives the travelling motion unit, and a base body mounted with the travelling motion unit and the actuator and configured to be tiltable with respect to the perpendicular direction. In order to maintain a tilt angle of the base body at a desired tilt angle (to prevent the base body from falling down), it is necessary to move the travelling motion unit by displacing a fulcrum of the inverted pendulum.
As this type of the inverted pendulum type mobile apparatus, for example, an inverted pendulum type vehicle disclosed in Patent Document 1 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,070,015) had been proposed by the present applicant. In the inverted pendulum type vehicle disclosed in the Patent Document 1, a base body of a vehicle assembled with a payload supporting part embarking a subject to be transported, namely, a user, is provided so as to be freely tiltable about two axes, specifically one axis in a longitudinal direction and the other axis in a lateral direction, with respect to the travelling motion unit having a ball shape. In the technology for controlling an inverted pendulum type vehicle, a driving torque of a motor is sequentially determined so as to approximate a difference between a measured value of a tilt angle of the base body (=tilt angle of the payload supporting part) and a desired tilt angle and a difference between a measured value of a velocity of the motor as an actuator unit (and consequently a travelling velocity of the travelling motion unit) and a desired velocity to 0. Thereafter, the travelling motion of the travelling motion unit is controlled via the motor according to the determined drive torque.
The present applicant further proposes vehicles capable of functioning as the inverted pendulum type mobile apparatus, such as those disclosed in Patent Document 2 (Published PCT International Application WO/2008/132778) and Patent Document 3 (Published PCT International Application WO/2008/132779).